ScienceDaily (Mar. 20, 2008)

A study of meteorites suggests that Mars, the Earth and the Moon share a common composition from ‘growing up’ in a unique planetary nursery in the inner solar system.

The finding could lead to a rethink of how the inner solar system formed.

In the journal Nature the international team of scientists, which includes Professor Alex Halliday from Oxford University’s Department of Earth Sciences, report how they analysed 16 meteorites that fell to Earth from Mars. They found that the amounts of neodymium-142 these contain are subtly different from those of objects found in the asteroid belt. This isotopic fingerprint is proof that the chemistry of the inner solar system was different even for elements that are hard to vapourise.

Full article here:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080319140319.htm